


The Life Of An Android

by LostAtBay



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms
Genre: Android Carl Grimes, Carl is an android, Carl is in high school, Carl is sixteen, Judith is four, Maggie is expecting, Negan is Carl's Gym Coach, No Walkers (Zombies), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slight Humor, but he still feels love and other emotions and feelings, modern day AU, that is his big family secret
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 07:17:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18773875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostAtBay/pseuds/LostAtBay
Summary: This story is gonna take a turn no other Walking Dead story has ever gone. Carl is an android, created by Lori Grimes and after she died giving birth to her daughter, Judith, Carl feels alone without his creator. But, fortunately, his father and his girlfriend, Michonne, is there for him.Soon enough, he has an eye for the new girl at school (classic, huh?) named Enid and that's when things change. But for better, or for worse?Then he starts getting some…technical difficulties. Parts of his system starts to fail and he is left with his life on the line.Secrets start to unfold as Carl's system doesn't just start to fail, but also get better. And him and his family and friends are left shocked at what they find inside….





	The Life Of An Android

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I enjoy reading (and watching) stuff like this and when I tried to look some up on here I couldn't find anything that I was looking for, so I thought that I could change that and so I made this. I hope you like it! 
> 
> If you'd like, you can read my other Walking Dead work called The Answer To Every Question. It is not about anything android, but you might enjoy it. :)

" **DAD!** " Carl called. He had something cool to show his father. Something he made. 

"Coming!" Rick yelled back. He had just gotten home from a long day at the sherrif's department. Literally _just_ got home. He hasn't even gotten his shoes off. But he wasn't surprised that Carl would call him as soon as he took a step in the door. He had been programmed to know when someone steps in a twenty-yard radious. He most likely knew he was almost home before he pulled into the driveway. With a bonus, as soon as someone steps in Carl's radious, Carl can pull up at least most information about that person. It is very interesting, but to Carl, a little annoying, as you can probably imagine.

Rick shrugged off his jacket and took off his shoes and made his way up the stairs to see what Carl wanted. It could be anything from wanting to tell him some news, to admitting that, once again, he had misplaced his portable charger. It was a strange way to live indeed.

When Rick opened the door to Carl's room, Carl turned and Rick noticed that Carl was holding something.

"Look!" Carl said with glee. Sometimes with his attitude it seemed like he is a small kid again. But it can also seem that he is very old and wise. Right now, he was definitely a kid.

"What is it?" Rick asked with curiosity. He couldn't make out the shape at this distance.

"I made an electronic caterpillar!" Carl exclaimed proudly. "One day, she will turn into an electronic butterfly!" 

"How-" Rick started to ask but decided against it. He knew that if he asked Carl will go on and on about every little detail of the electronic bug because "every detail counts", as Carl has said before.

"It's not that hard if you think about it, really," Carl started to explain. Oh, right. Rick remembered now. Of course Carl wouldn't miss him starting to ask that question. His incredible hearing made sure of that. "You just got to make a special motor for the little thing first of all. But it has to be small as the body itself is small and you have to fit a lot of other little equipment for it to work…."

 _Oh, boy,_ Rick thought. He didn't want to stop Carl and upset him because it felt like Carl's excitement was too precious to waste. Not like he expected less time to be with Carl and his often excitement, but ever since his wife, Lori, died, Carl became…shut down, as you could say. It made it worse because Lori was Carl's creator. She worked as a scientist for the government. Not just the state government, but the USA government. She was a big enough scientist that she shook hands with the presidant. Which leaves one question unanswered: Why did she create Carl?

"…And then when the caterpillar is ready to transform into a _Papilio machaon_ , these certain gears will shift…" Rick tried to listen as much as possible, but some of the things Carl said just made no sense.For example, what the hell is a _"Papilio machaon"_?

"I'm boring you aren't I?" Carl suddenly asked. "Do you want me to stop?" Carl tilted his head slightly to the right, eyes sparkling with curiosity. Rick couldn't help but think about how lucky he was to have Carl. Then he remembered the question.

"Well…no," Rick stuttered. He didn't know what to say to the curious and enlightened sixteen-year-old. He didn't want to make him upset. Ever since Lori died and Carl had…shut down a little as he was incapable of feeling sad or being able to mourn properly, Rick was cautious of upsetting Carl because he had seen him upset enough.

"You are not lying but you are not saying the full truth either," Carl stated. 

"It's just that…some of the things you say, "Rick tried to make it as nice as possible, "is kinda hard to understand."

"What don't you understand?" Carl asked.

"What is a _Papilio machaon_?"

" _Papilio_ is Latin for _butterfly_ ," Carl explained. 

_Oh_ , Rick thought. _That makes more sense._

"But do you still want me to stop?" Carl asked again.

"Well…" Rick hesitated. What will he say?

"I'll stop," Carl said. But then he brightened up again. "But it's still cool, isn't it?"

"Yes, of course it is," Rick agreed. "It is really cool."

"What should I name her?" Carl asked. Rick shrugged.

"Whatever you want," Rick replied. Carl thought for a moment.

"I'll think about it," he finally said. Then he moved to the corner of his room where a clear, plastic crate stood. Rick noticed that the crate wasn't there the last time he was in Carl's room. 

Carl put the little bug in the crate where there was little bug trinkets in there. The electronic bug crawled more into the crate as Carl closed it. 

Then Rick remember that he wanted to talk to Carl about something.

"Carl, there is something I want to talk to you about," Rick said.

"What about?" Carl asked, getting up and walking swiftly to Rick until he was exactly a foot away from him. Carl preferred that distance because it seemed normal enough. He still has a lot to learn.

"About school," Rick replied. "I know that we have been telling people that you are being homeschooled but I thought that maybe if you actually go to school you might be able to learn to at least act more human-like." Carl frowned. He was confused. At least, he knew exactly what Rick meant, but it was the part of "learning to act more human-like" that he had to rethink. He thought he was doing quite well on acting human.

"Have I been failing to act more human?" Carl asked. Rick shook his head.

"No, but you seem to…change personalities very drastically. I just think that maybe if you go someplace with more people, you can develop more ways to act like a human." Rick tensed slightly, hoping he didn't sound too harsh.

Carl's frown deepened, if that was even possible. He wasn't angry though. He couldn't be, anyway. He hasn't been able to feel any anger as he hasn't updated enough to feel it. But he was still a little confused.

"Do I not seem able to act like a human?" Carl asked.

"You are doing fine but I also feel like maybe we shouldn't keep you away from humans," Rick suggested.

"What's the point then to be with humans if I am capable of acting like one?" The more Carl asks questions almost anytime it sometimes feels like they are both just getting more confused. It seemed like Carl had forgotten what Rick just said, strangely. He usually doesn't miss anything.

"You can get better at acting, but also you can maybe make some friends," Rick answered. It just seemed like he was repeating himself and he was afraid that there was something going wrong in Carl's system. But he was distracted from that thought with what Carl said next, which both surprised and shocked Rick.

"With friends you tell a bunch of secrets because you're friends and you trust each other. The secret we have though we cannot tell anyone so friends will be out of the question as they won't be true friends. And anyway, I don't deserve any friends," Carl mumbled that last sentence quiet enough that Rick could barely hear.

"What makes you think that?" Rick asked. He didn't think that Carl could even have any thoughts like that.

"I am not human. Only humans can have friends," Carl explained. Rick only got more confused. He didn't know where Carl could've gotten that. But then he remembered that Carl was connected to the internet. He could've gotten that from there. One bad part about having an android child, is that you can't control their internet use at all.

"You don't need to be human to have friends," Rick said calmly. "For example, dogs can have friends and they aren't human."

"But dogs are alive and I'm not. I do not have a heartbeat or blood," Carl countered. _This is gonna be hard_ , Rick thought.

"Plants don't either and they are alive," Rick pointed out. Carl opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as he thought more about what his father said.

"Okay," Carl soon said. "So school. What school am I going to? I can pull up three different ones withing fifteen minutes of us while driving." Rick smiled, hoping that Carl has gotten over the "no friends" fiasco.

"I'm thinking of Country Bay High School," Rick suggested. "What do you think?"

"That sounds amazing," Carl said, smiling like crazy. He seemed to have gone from all sulky to super excited as quick as flicking a switch. "School starts there in exactly one week. We need to get some school supplies before we go, but that shouldn't be a problem." Carl seemed like he faded off in the distance for a moment then snapped back to reality.

"I have ordered all the supplies we need and they should arrive in three days tops," Carl then said proudly.

"Where did you order from?" Rick asked.

"E-Bay," Carl replied. "They have great deals out now that school is starting soon." Rick smiled, happy that Carl cannot lie. He had been programmed to never lie, but Carl has his ways to get around it so sometimes Rick has to make sure he asks very pointedly. This time, he wanted Carl to tell the truth 'cause sometimes he orders from the wrong place. Once Carl ordered from an online website that was a spam. Carl was lucky that he is very hard to get hacked into, or else the secret would definitely be out. So Rick had to drill into Carl's head (not literally, thankfully) to not order on those websites and check for spam before ordering. Now Carl seems to almost always order from E-Bay.

"Okay," Rick said. "I'm gonna go eat dinner now 'cause I'm starving."

"Have fun! I'll stay here with my caterpillar pet. And don't forget to feed Judith! She will be awake soon." Carl walked back over to the electronic caterpillar. Usually Carl would feed Judith but right now he has a lot on his mind. 

"Of course I wouldn't forget to feed Judith, she's my daughter," Rick joked. Though that was true.

 _And I'm not your son?_ Carl thought but shoved that thought away before it ate him alive. He was Rick's son. No matter what he was made of. These days he has to remind himself that every once in a while.

He also wondered how school would even work. Does he have to pretend that he was struggling every once in a while or not? At least at first he could be fine 'cause it it known that homeschoolers are usually smarter than public schoolers. Not that public schoolers are stupid or anything. But he might have that on his side. For a little while. 

Then he just shrugged it off thinking, _I have plenty of time to think about this._

He studied his electronic pet for any malfunctions, just in case. It seemed fine so he just played with it, letting it crawl over him. It was really fun and helped him relax a little. School was off his mind at that point and he enjoyed the relaxation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you like the new turn? I hope you enjoyed it! Tell me if you would like another chapter. If so, I will time-skip to him going to school for the first time. Have a nice day! :)
> 
> (p.s. If you have any ideas for the name of the caterpillar I would love to hear them. Thank you!)


End file.
